Today the graduation ceremony of the Gender Equality program for women-leaders took place in Astana. This training project of the Samruk-Kazyna Group of companies was created with the support of the National Commission on Women and Family, Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan and is aimed at increasing the proportion of women in the governing bodies of companies and organizations in the quasi-public sector.

The project has become one of the mechanisms for implementing the President’s instruction on 30% representation of women in senior positions in the state-owned companies.

Speaking at the ceremony, Aida Balayeva, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Chairman of the National Commission on Women and Family, Demographic Policy under the President of the Republic of Kazakhstan, noted that “The National Commission is represented by very active and promising women who work on a voluntary basis and make a great contribution to the development of a particular industry and to solving urgent problems of society.

Today, the women’s movement is replenished with new bright representatives and leaders. I am sure that each of you has own ideas, initiatives, projects that will contribute to improving the status of women in Kazakhstan’s society. I believe that our current project, which involves the inclusion of women on the boards of directors of various companies, is unique”.

Nurlan Zhakupov, the Chief Executive Officer of Samruk-Kazyna, in his speech stressed: “Today we are completing a very important stage in improving our approach to company management. We have a pool of women ready to work at decision-making levels. I am sure that our experience in preparation of leaders will be useful for the whole country, and we are ready to share it”.

At the moment, 259.5 thousand people are currently employed in Samruk-Kazyna group, including 72 thousand women. About 8,500 of them hold senior positions, starting with the Heads of Divisions. This is also about a third of the total number of managers. However, women make up only 15% of the top management (Management Boards, Boards of Directors, Supervisory Boards).

Measures are taken to increase this indicator to 20% in 2023 and to 30% by 2030. In this regard, conditions are created for the development of the environment for the formation of women’s leadership skills, stimulation and promotion of women leaders, and achievement of gender equality priorities.

The Gender Equality program has become one of the effective tools for the implementation of these tasks. Thanks to the Gender Equality program, female employees of Samruk-Kazyna group of companies with managerial experience from all over Kazakhstan completed additional management courses to join the Boards of Directors and Supervisory Boards of state companies. Today 71 of them have received certificates of course completion. 15 graduates have already been included in expert groups at central government agencies, regional commissions on women’s affairs and family and demographic policy. Another 10 participants joined the governing bodies of state-owned companies.